Splitting Tens
by Alyss Bouw
Summary: When her parents break up and begin fighting over everything, Nessie decides to pull out of the war zone only to have half the family come after her to drag her back. Jasper doesn't feel she should have to suffer Bella and Edward's divorce from inside the house, but he can't keep the others from catching her forever.
1. Chapter 1 Nessie

**Chapter One**

_Nessie_

"Are you really this self-centered?"

I don't know how to respond. My first instinct is to say yes, because I really am. But it would make me a better person if I could say no and give a decent reason for my behavior.

So instead of giving that answer, I go with something that allows for the possibility that I'm not a total cow.

"Probably," I say.

Jasper pushes his hands into his pocket, not meeting my gaze in any way. Being here, asking me these sorts of questions when he never had been a disciplinarian before, was clearly making him uncomfortable.

If I wasn't so against what he was trying to get me to do, I most likely would have found the whole ordeal rather amusing.

"I really don't understand your motivations for things most of the time. I understand good and bad, selflessness and spite, pleasure-chasing and pain avoidance, but I don't know why you do the things you do."

My eyes lower to the floor as he speaks. That was something I couldn't figure out either. Even when I chose to do something, I rarely knew why.

"I don't know why either," I disclose.

He regards me silently for a minute. It's probably solely due to me not looking back that makes him capable of looking at me now. At some point in the last twelve months everything had gotten a little bit awkward between Jasper and I for no apparent reason.

"So what are you going to do?" he asks, breaking my train of thought.

I shrug. "Run away from you again, I guess."

Jasper chuckles once quietly. "Honest."

"What about you?" I ask.

"Follow you," he replies.

I laugh in a way that mirrors his. "Honest."

When I look to his face he doesn't look away for five or so seconds and an almost amused smirk flashes across his features.

"Head start?"

He folds his arms across his chest and turns around slowly. I don't move though, despite the flight instinct telling me to take the advantage.

"Five . . ." Jasper begins to count.

That's all it takes. I turn and run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.

I finally hit the road again and continued at a full sprint along it towards the pink cloud of smog that hung above Houston.

A few minutes later I reached the outskirts of the city and caught sight of a used car dealership.

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	2. Chapter 2 Jasper

**Chapter Two**

_Jasper_

"You let her go," Emmett says immediately when he arrived.

Nessie had disappeared over half an hour ago and I'd just waited for Emmett to catch up ever since.

"She ran away," I reply, not wanting to tell him I had. Technically it was true.

He huffs loudly and shakes his head. "She's one little girl with _half _the strength of us and an _eighth _of the combat skills. How does she get away from you?"

I consider actively defending myself, twisting the events to make it seem less like I let her go after a quick chat, but it's too much effort for something that isn't worth it.

"I let her go," I confess.

"Yeah, I know," Emmett mutters, openly displeased.

"I don't know why." I feel the same way Nessie did when she said those words to me, and I knew Emmett was just as frustrated as I had been when I'd heard them.

"You're not comfortable being harsh with her."

I shrug. _True_.

He huffs again and continues in a more annoyed tone. "She's not a sweet little four year old anymore, Jas. She's a teenager who doesn't want to do something so she ran away."

"I know that," I say quietly.

"You agree with her?" he asks

I say nothing in reply, but my expression portrays enough. _Yes_.

"Me too," he mutters after a long moment. "But she's not your kid and we said we'd bring her back to Bella and Edward, so that's what we have to do. Don't let her go next time."

"How about you get her? I'll find her and you can do the manhandling."

"Sounds good to me." He nods. "So which way did she go?"

I gesture straight ahead and then look back to Emmett. "But that was over half an hour ago."

"_Fantastic_ . . ."

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	3. Chapter 3 Nessie

**Chapter Three**

_Nessie POV_

_Facebook Status:_ Waiting for my consultation with a plastic surgeon.

I look back over the shelves of hair dye for a color that wouldn't look too similar to my actual hair, or look completely unnatural, but would also make me unrecognizable from a distance while hiding my face behind big sunglasses.

If I cut off about half the length, straightened and restyled it, along with the new color and the entirely different selection of clothing to my usual wardrobe, I could probably blend in with a crowd even with my relatives searching for me in exactly the right place.

Eventually, I pick out a shade of dark blond that would pass for brown out of the sun and head back to the check-outs with my basket of appearance-altering tools.

After a quick wrestling match with the self-serve booth and having it abuse me for not having some kind of rewards card, I navigate my way out of the grocery store and load the bags into the back of the van that smells of body odor and fried eggs. A horrendous amount of bleach will probably need to be deployed in order to dredge the stench from the interiors.

Once all my bags are loaded, I jump in the front and prepare to pull out of the parking space. As I look in the side mirror, I see a familiar figure standing on the edge of the parking lot looking back at me.

_Emmett . . . _I'm not getting out of this one.

I close my eyes and let my head fall back on the headrest. It would be a matter of seconds before Emmett comes over, most likely commandeers the van, and hauls my ass back to New Hampshire and the shit-storm waiting for me.

Around thirty seconds pass and I slowly open my eyes, looking in the mirror again as I peer through the lids. Emmett is still in the same spot, only Jasper is with him now and neither of them seem to even be contemplating whether or not to approach. I look more intently at Jasper now, trying to see his expression as best as possible in the distorted reflection.

He mouths something to me, and then Emmett turns to him with a frown.

I wait, holding my breath while they have a short conversation. If the past few encounters are anything to go by, Jasper isn't very keen on taking me home. It would just be Emmett he had to convince.

Again, they both look to me.

"Go," Jasper says. I can't hear him, but I can read the simple word as it leaves his mouth. I look to Emmett again, finding that he's looking away now.

They're giving me another pass.

My heart begins to race and I fumble a little with the key in the ignition. If I wait too long, Emmett's conscience will get the better of him and Jasper won't be able to let me go again with him trying to catch me.

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	4. Chapter 4 Jasper

**Chapter Four**

_Jasper POV_

"This isn't going to end well," Emmett says angry once Nessie's van was completely out of sight.

I scoff loudly. "You think I don't know that?"

"Then why are you delaying the inevitable? We can't _not _take her home forever," he continues, getting more flustered and edgy with each second.

In an attempt to keep myself rational and calm, I block out most of his words so it's all just white noise like the sounds of the suburban life around us.

I hadn't been in Texas since I was a newborn with Maria, and being back here wasn't one of my most pleasant experiences.

Renesmee had learnt enough from my survival training to know that by coming here—somewhere so hot and bright—that she would have the upper hand for the twelve or so hours of daylight that restricted our movements to the shadows each day, while she was free to roam about with nothing more than a shimmer from her skin.

". . . and then I think it would be best if we demolished every house we own," Emmett said, looking at me expectantly when he was done talking.

"What?!" I blanch.

His expression was tight within a moment. "I knew you weren't listening to me."

I let my eyes drop to the ground and sigh heavily. "Sorry."

"You said that if you found her, that you'd let me go get her. Then when we get the chance, you tell me _no, _that it's too risky in the sun and that we can do it later. I don't know about you, Jasper, but I'm getting fairly sick of this country-wide game of tag." As soon as he was done speaking, Emmett began walking away, not allowing for me to reply.

Not that I really wanted to or had anything to say . . .

_I'm sorry,_ I thought again.

As bad as I felt for the poor girl and as much as I agree with her that she was better off out here for the time being, I still didn't want to keep it going for the sake of Emmett and Alice and Rose.

"_Call Alice!_" Emmett says over his shoulder. "_Let her know about the van so they've got some chance of catching her too._"

_This shit is ridiculous,_ I think as I pull out my cell and dial in Alice's number.

It rings for just one second before she's on the other end.

"_Hi, Jasper,_" she says pleasantly.

"_Hi. Ness has a white van now that she picked up at some stage last night. The license plate's 697 HZX. Just figured you should know."_

"_If you were that close that you saw the license plate, why didn't you just grab her_?" Alice asks immediately.

"She was in the sun and there were too many people. We're at a mall parking lot," I explain, knowing that she'll accept it.

"_Bad luck. She knows what she's doing, that's for sure."_

I laugh wryly. "Yeah, I trained her to be able to escape from other vampires. I didn't ever think that she'd want to escape us."

"_Well done,_" Alice laughs too. "_So where are you? We'll head over that way and try to cut her off when she's leaving._"

"Houston," I answer quickly, trying to keep the reluctance out of my tone.

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	5. Chapter 5 Nessie

**Chapter Five**

_Nessie POV_

For the first twenty minutes after I started driving I simply focused on putting a lot of space between myself and the mall, turning down side roads so as not to make my trail too obvious.

When it becomes apparent that no one is following me, I slow a little and start to actually take notice of the streets around me. There were large volumes of children walking the streets, all seeming to be headed in the opposite direction that I'm driving in.

_School must be finished_, I realize, and then a moment later it strikes me that an empty school is a well-equipped place to spend a night hiding. I'd be able to find everything I could need and wouldn't run the risk of being caught on the move when the others were unrestricted in the darkness.

When I came to the next main road I pulled up it and immediately found a high school with hoards of teenagers still leaving, or gathered at the front gates waiting to be picked up.

Rather than stopping though, I continue up past it and drive for another half hour until I'm so far away that the houses are starting to get fewer and farther between.

After gathering my bags from the back, I leave the van in the parking lot of a swimming complex and wait about ten minutes for the bus to come that takes me back in the direction I came from.

By the time I finally reach the school over an hour later it was getting dark and all the cars had left the staff parking lot.

I looked around for any sign of humans that could see what I was about to do and call the police, but find no one.

Feeling a little safer, I enter the school and quickly make my way around to the back where I can't be seen from the street and start searching for an entry point.

The external gym doors were completely unlocked when I tried them and once inside I had access to the entire school.

The first order of business was locating the main office, which was predictably at the very front of the school. I found the monitoring system in a poorly protected closet and deleted the footage from today, destroying all evidence of my being here along with it.

Next, I went back to the gym and unpacked todays purchases in the locker room before standing in front of the mirror with the sharp new hair scissors.

All my life my hair had been long. It had never been cut shorter than my waist, and so I had no clue how I would look with it any other way. I twisted it around and folded it up, trying to get a decent idea of what it would be like at different lengths and what that length would look like once I'd dyed it.

Eventually, I gave up trying to predict the outcome and held my breath with a clenched jaw as I placed a section of hair from the very front between the blades and cut off everything below my armpit. Roughly two feet of hair fell to the floor and I let go of the breath as I grabbed another section further back.

_It's not that bad,_ I told myself, trying to stave off a panic attack.

In all, it took maybe ten minutes to cut off two thirds of my bronze curls, and another two minutes of just staring at my reflection before I snapped myself out of the shock to continue.

It took another hour to dye my hair and then forty-five minutes after that to straighten it and trim the bottom of all the uneven spots.

There was no sunlight in the locker room by the time I'd finished and I guessed it was about seven o'clock. Maybe even later.

As I dressed myself in the black jeans and grey t-shirt I'd bought—a polar opposite of the vibrant colors I usually favored—I couldn't keep myself from looking in the mirror at the stranger standing in my place.

It wasn't that I looked _bad_, I just looked nothing like I ever had before.

_It's exactly what I was trying to achieve,_ I thought to remind myself of what was happening outside this gym.

I had to look different.

I cleaned up the mess, trying not to dwell on everything as I gathered up my hair, the bottles of dye, and my old clothes for the trash. Hopefully the cleaners wouldn't actually _look _in the trash cans before tying up the bags.

It was right when I'd finished packing up the hair straightener that I heard the gym doors open. Of course, my whole body froze and my breathing stopped as I listened intently to the sound of the footsteps crossing the wooden floor.

Small feet.

No heartbeat.

_Alice._

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	6. Chapter 6 Jasper

**Chapter Six**

_Jasper POV_

"I feel bad," Emmett murmurs so quietly that I can barely hear him.

Rosalie is walking around from the front of the school and I know he doesn't want her hearing him say that.

"At least she had this long," I reply at the same volume.

Inside the gym, Alice is trying to calmly talk Nessie into coming out, but from what I can feel through the walls that isn't going to happen.

Impossibly fast footsteps race across the gym floor then and the doors to our left burst open as Nessie speeds out with Alice a few steps behind her.

She's crying . . .

"_Alice, please don't make me go back there. It kills me to watch them fight and have both of them want me to choose which one to go with. I'll come back on my own, just not now, I'm begging you_."

Emmett and I watch on from the other side of the field, neither of us saying anything as we observe the minor scene before us. He feels bad for her now, which is even showing in his expression rather than just his emotions. Now the reality of what catching her means has sunk in, he can see why I was so reluctant and let her go so many times.

"_Nessie, I can't leave you out here. You know that. So stop crying and please get in the car. We can't stop chasing you until we bring you home, and you can't stop running until we stop chasing. So can we call it quits and go back to our lives?_" Alice sounds mildly angry now, but I can't sense from this far whether or not that's just a front to try and get co-operation.

"I don't know why they can't just let her live with Charlie for a while," Rose says as she comes up alongside us.

"They're fighting over her, just like everything else," Emmett grumbles and slides his arm around her shoulders as soon as she reaches us. I can feel their relief in being back together after so long of being split up.

"It's ridiculous," she whispers, then falling silent as she puts her head against Emmett's chest.

"_They're fighting over what _states _each of them will be permitted to live in!_" Nessie screams suddenly, cutting off whatever Alice had been saying. "_How can you argue with me on whether they're being civil?!_"

Alice takes a step back and looks away to the ground. I begin to pick up traces of her anger and Nessie's frustration in their air as it wafts over to us then and it becomes even more obvious that this is just going to continue escalating to breaking point.

"_Okay. Fine!" _Alice begins in a louder, harsher tone._ "They're being completely pathetic and juvenile—I agree. But the fact remains that we're family to _both_ of them regardless of how they view each other and they _both_ asked us to bring their child back home." _She pauses for a moment, looking back to Nessie before she continues._ "Now I've had enough of them, and the whole charade of chasing you around the country, so get the _hell _in the car and learn to accept that our happy home has a huge crack down the middle. I am _completely _on your side, but this tantrum needs to move back to your bedroom and not in a Texas high school."_

"_I don't _care _about whether or not you've had enough of chasing me! I've had enough of being chased! But it doesn't mean that I'm willing to go back to my _fucked up _family because we're _tired!_" _Ness' voice raises well over Alice's then and I hear Rosalie exhale heavily and close her eyes beside me.

None of us want to be doing this. I'm just thankful Alice has stepped in to carry out this final shit-fight rather than leaving it to one of us.

"_It's a personal sacrifice! You give up what you want for what needs to be done for the good of everyone. It's why we're _chasing_ you! Stop being so spoilt, for heaven's sake._"

We all wait then in total silence. None of us even breathing. Just hoping that she'll give in and come back with us so this cross-country hunt can be done with.

"_I hate you,_" Nessie hisses as her tears begin to increase again.

Rose makes a small sound of disconcertion, but says nothing. It won't be a pleasant ride home with her if she resents us this much for making her return.

"_Well I guess I'll just have to live with that,_" Alice responds, much quieter than before. "_Now get in the car and you can hate me all the way back to New Hampshire._"

The fight is abruptly over then, almost as suddenly as it started. Nessie heads over to the car then without any further argument and gets in the back. None of us particularly want to follow her though.

"Go make sure Alice is okay," Rosalie instructs and starts guiding Emmett to toward the car.

Taking her suggestion, I start walking toward Alice, trying to figure out what to say to help when I get to the other side of the field.

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	7. Chapter 7 Nessie

**Chapter Seven**

_Nessie POV_

_Stop crying. Stop crying. Stop crying._

Although the mantra continues in my head, my eyes don't seem to be paying attention and the tears continue to pool on my bottom lids.

Emmett and Rosalie get in the front of the car without looking back or saying a word. I know that Rose must strongly disapprove of what I'd said to Alice, and I half expect to have her say something about it, but she says nothing as she clicks in the seat belt and the two of them stare straight ahead while we wait for Jasper and Alice to finally join us.

Two or three minutes passes and I see them approaching out of the corner or my eye. I tense automatically, not wanting Alice to sit next to me for the full day it will take us to get back to New Hampshire.

The tears stop when dread takes over as my primary emotion and I stop breathing while I wait to see which one of them it is that slides in first.

Jasper opens the door and pauses for a moment, giving Alice the opportunity to get in. She doesn't take it though.

Another few seconds pass and after a silent exchange I couldn't see, Jasper slips in and across to the middle seat beside me.

I recoil further into the door and try to shut everything off. Sitting next to Jasper isn't the _most _uncomfortable thing I could be experiencing, but I also don't want him studying and adjusting my every feeling either.

Once Alice is inside the car as well, Emmett wastes no time flicking the engine to life and we pull out of the parking lot and turn left to head north.

"Call Bella. Let her know we're coming home," Alice says to Rose.

My stomach twists with nerves at her instruction and it hits me once again that I will have to face my parents again in roughly twenty-four hours. Instantly, tears return to my eyes and I quickly wipe them on my sleeve.

_Why couldn't they say they didn't want to look for me?_ I wonder to myself and glance around the car discreetly.

"Hey, we've got her. We're coming home," Rose says quietly down the phone line.

"_Thank God._" I hear Mom say from the other end. "_Make sure she doesn't run again._"

"We will," Rose promises unconvincingly and looks at me in the rear-vision mirror as if she thought I was possible gone already.

I turn my head further to the left and look out the window in an attempt to shield my face from her intrusive watch.

Mom says something else, but I don't pay close enough attention to catch the hurried words and Rose hangs up without saying anything in response.

Emmett navigates his way out of the short and bending suburban streets quickly and before long we're on a highway going well over the limit as usual. It seems that, for whatever reason, he's very eager to get back to the house and the chaos that awaits us.

Or maybe he just doesn't want to spend more time than necessary cramped in this car.

Either way, his lead foot isn't doing me any favors.

"It's not going to be as bad as you think," Jasper says so quietly I can barely hear him from six inches away.

I turn my head halfway to face him and give a look of skepticism.

A fleeting sense of trust and calm penetrates my mind and I know it's him, but it doesn't linger and in a moment it's gone again. He's just using his gift to communicate non-verbally with me.

I reach my left hand out a little from where it was wrapped around the right side of my body and easily touch his side without anyone else noticing the movement.

Jasper moves ever-so-slightly at the contact, but still hides it well. He doesn't jump again when I push my fingertips under the edge of his shirt and press them into his skin.

_Thanks for dragging it out this long_, I say through my touch on his hip.

I curl my fingers back into a ball and retract my arm again.

A few seconds later I feel an unnatural bout of lethargy overtaking me and I know it's him again. He's giving me the chance to sleep through this rather than suffer.

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